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Democratic Caucus leader steps down

Dean to spend more time with family

Posted: Thursday, December 12, 2002

By Dick PettysAssociated Press

ATLANTA -- Sen. Nathan Dean of Rockmart resigned Wednesday as chairman of a Senate Democratic Caucus shaken by the election of the first Republican governor in modern times and by four party switches that put them out of power in the chamber.

Dean, re-elected chairman just last week as Democrats reorganized their battered forces, cited his wife's pending knee surgery in a letter to fellow Democrats and said he did not want to ''compromise family obligations'' by holding the caucus post.

Although Dean had a close call from a Republican challenger last month, winning re-election by a scant 261 votes, Republicans said there were no ongoing discussions with Dean about changing parties.

Sen. Bill Stephens, R-Canton, a spokesman for Gov.-elect Sonny Perdue's transition team, said he talked with two Republican leaders Wednesday and ''neither one of them has heard anything about this from Nathan.''

However, Senate Republican leaders have said they plan to appoint at least three Democrats to committee chairmanships after the Legislature convenes on Jan. 13 and they are able to push through a rule change to strip the lieutenant governor of most of his appointment powers.

Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, a Democrat who was re-elected in November, has been seen by Republicans as fiercely partisan and will be left only with his constitutional power to preside over Senate debate.

Currently, he also has the power to appoint committees and to choose which committees decide the fate of which bills. Changes the Republicans are preparing would allow GOP senators to call those shots.

Dean, 68, has been a member of the Senate since 1975 and served previously in the House for 10 years.

Georgia voters elected 30 Democrats and 26 Republicans to the Senate on November 5, leaving Democrats in power as they had been since Reconstruction.

But after Perdue won the governor's race, he talked four Democrats -- Dan Lee of LaGrange, Don Cheeks of Augusta, Jack Hill of Reidsville and Rooney Bowen of Cordele -- into switching parties.

The change left Republicans with a 30-26 majority, one more than the 29 needed to pass a bill in the Legislature.